The year 2012 has proven quite successful for Mumbai International Airport as four foreign airlines started their operations from there. Moreover, 2013 looks more encouraging. “In 2012, airlines such as Iraqi Airways, Air China, Virgin Atlantic and Maldivian Airlines have started operations from Mumbai,” Tariq H Butt, Vice President- Airport Marketing & Aero Business, Mumbai International Airport Pvt Ltd (MIAL), said.
Giving more details, Butt said that Iraqi Airways re-launched their operations after a gap of 22 years. “The reason for restarting flights to India was to cater to the country’s growing religious tourism. The carrier connects Najaf and Baghdad to Mumbai. Najaf, Karbala, Samarra, Kadhimiya are some of the important places in Iraq visited by Shia Muslims from India. There was a good demand for air connectivity to Iraq from Mumbai and catchment areas,” he revealed, and added that a lot of business travellers also fly to Baghdad as a number of Indian companies are involved in construction business in Iraq.
Similarly, Air China’s service on the Mumbai-Chengdu-Shanghai route was also in demand from the business and leisure communities of these cities. “Currently, Air China flies thrice a week, but the carrier is keen to start daily service in the coming months,” Butt stated. Virgin Atlantic also re-launched its services between Mumbai and London due to increased traffic on this route. Last but not the least, Maldivian Airlines also launched their service and the carrier is exploring the possibility of increasing frequency on the Mumbai-Male route to cater to the growing demand.
Butt is also quite confident of getting more foreign airlines this year. “So far, Mumbai is not directly connected to CIS capital cities like Almaty, Tashkand and Moscow, among others. We are in talks with some of the airlines from CIS. Air Astana recently received traffic rights to fly between Mumbai and Almaty and may start operation in next 6-8 months. Similarly, Uzbekistan Airways is trying to get traffic rights from Mumbai. We are also in talks with Aeroflot,” Butt revealed. Moreover, airlines like Vietnam Airlines and Hainan Airlines have also evinced interest to operate from Mumbai. “We are also in talks with China Southern and China Eastern Airlines,” he informed.
The parent company of MIAL, GVK, is also spreading its wings to overseas countries. GVK has signed a MoU with the Govt of Indonesia for developing an international greenfield airport in Yogyakarta in central Java. GVK has also signed an operations and management contract with The Airports Authority of Indonesia to manage non-aeronautical commercial operations at Bali International Airport under a five-year operations and management contract with a first right of refusal to GVK on extension of the contract. This project includes the existing terminals and the one currently under construction.
